Standards-Based Assessment & Reporting

Standards-based assessment and reporting allows ASD educators to focus on the instructional process, how instruction occurs and how it can be affirmed for the student.

Standards-based assessment and reporting argues for formative assessment rather than the traditional summative assessment.

According to Dr. Robert Marzano, a renowned education expert who has consulted with the ASD in developing its new assessment and reporting system, “classroom assessment is inherently formative.”

Averaging assessment scores makes sense from a summative perspective, Marzano notes, but the “driving force behind averaging as a way of estimating an individual’s true score” assumes that the score for a student stays constant from assessment to assessment.

Formative assessment is also more culturally responsive. Individual variances in learning can and do change over time and are affected by a family’s culture, life-events, and socio-economic status.

Keeping the standards constant ensures the same curriculum and objectives are being taught to every child, no matter where he or she lives or attends school.

The state and district standards, also known as Grade Level Expectations, objectively define what a child is supposed to be learning.

Status of the pilot project at ASD